Daredevil Season 2 Review

This post is definitely going to contain a number of spoilers, so if you haven’t caught up with Daredevil, please don’t read beyond this point. If you don’t care about spoilers, then who am I to stop you?

Some of you may know from one of my previous posts, I was super late to get onto the Daredevil bandwagon. I initially watched the first 4 and a half episodes at the same time as everyone else when season 1 was released but it was so slow paced that I gave up. It was only when people were telling me about how much better season 2 was that I knuckled down and got through season 1 (which mind you, after episode 5 onwards, I loved), and then immediately continued binge watching season 2.

I finished watching season 2 of Daredevil last night and I feel so much better about this show than I did initially. There was a lot of world building and character back stories being told in season 1 which meant that in season 2, they could just throw us straight into the storyline, which I appreciated.

We were introduced to Frank Castle (The Punisher) in the first episode, and so straight off the bat you know this is our major storyline for this season. Jon Bernthal is absolutely perfect in this role and he gave The Punisher so much depth. We initially see him as simply a killing machine, but as the season progresses, we are drip fed new bits and pieces here or there which hints to him just being a really troubled man as opposed to a sociopath.

Once his story comes out, you can’t help but feel empathy for the guy, and you want him to win. He never denies that he is a killer, but what happens is we soften up when we hear his stories about reading his daughter a goodnight story, or hearing him talk about his kids favourite toys and we can see how much he adored his family, and he’s just lashing out for revenge. You want to see him get some justice, but Frank Castle is unpredictable and proves that he isn’t going to always do what you want him to do, especially in court and I loved this.

The friction between The Punisher and Daredevil was great for me. You have The Punisher coming in and basically tearing up Hell’s Kitchen killing people left, right and centre, and then Daredevil confronting him and telling him that Hell’s Kitchen is protected by him, and he’s not going to get away with killing people on his watch. The back and forth between the two made for really entertaining viewing.

I’m a softie at heart (although I’d deny it if you tell anyone), and so seeing some romance happen for Matt, with Karen none-the-less was so exciting for me. Call me cheesy, but their first kiss in the rain was so unrealistic yet perfect in every way. I adored it. Pretty sure I looked like the emoji with hearts for eyes at that moment.

Based on that you can probably deducted that I have no love for home-wrecker Elektra….. I don’t like that girl at all. But just because I don’t have any warm feelings towards her at all, does not mean I can’t admire her fighting skills, cause girl can fight. She was so impressive. But I really did struggle to find one likeable thing about her. Matt pandering to her needs just annoyed me more, but to me it just highlighted the level of her manipulation.

One thing that annoyed me (not production wise, but definitely character wise) this season was Matt’s neglect of the people that were always there for him before hand, Foggy and Karen. I was so disappointed in his character for this. Although I get the reasons why, I know he is distancing himself from them so he can give more time to being Daredevil, but come on man. You acted like an asshole all season to them and they kept giving you chances to be there and to lift your game. He had me so frustrated every time he was late or no-showed to court. But then again, comes back to Elektra being intrusive in Matt’s life and worming her way in.

The fight scenes for me really seemed to have improved this season, and I really enjoyed those. It seemed with the introduction of The Punisher that the brutality of some of those kills really did increase and I loved that they didn’t hold back. That scene with The Punisher against the Irish Mob was wild, and pretty much any fight scene with Nobu is insane as well. My favourite fight scene in this whole show happened in season 2, and that was Punisher versus the criminals in the prison walkway! Amazing!! Some incredible stuff this season.

I didn’t mind the back and forth nature between storylines. Elektra and Punisher really didn’t have anything to do with each other and so the way the season unfolds is that there’s two major storylines going back and forth with Daredevil being the link. Some feel that season 1 having a singular storyline may have been more focused and I can definitely understand that. For me, season 2 felt more fast paced, more exciting.

I love how they ended this season, as always it’s the last 10 minutes of any Daredevil episode where they start setting up for that cliffhanger in the last minute and that’s what they did here with the double whammy cliffhanger. The first being the hint that The Hand are going to resurrect Elektra for next season and the second being that Matt tells a shocked looking Karen that he’s Daredevil. I’m now hanging for season 3!

So those are my thoughts on season 2 – a solid effort and hugely enjoyable for me. Let me know what you thought, did you like season 1 or season 2 better?

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One thought on “Daredevil Season 2 Review”

Season 2 went from strength to strength for me. I loved the Punisher Daredevil dynamic especially at the rooftop & graveyard where matt goes from being quite preachy to a quiet listener that scene was so powerful.

I agree about Electra, Matt rejected Stick in season 1 because he valued his friends and seemed to do the opposite when it came to her. Stick, Matt & Electra together are more interesting to me as a dysfunctional family than just Matt & Electra as a couple. It’s one thing for Matt to feel something for a lost love but another when she enjoys bringing out the worst in him. I still miss Ben but I can’t wait for season three!